Metra may start over with UP North project

October 21, 2010

Metra might start over on its plan to rebuild 22 bridges on the Union Pacific North Line, rebidding the contract it already awarded for the work while figuring out a way to reduce the estimated $80 million cost of new retaining walls, officials said.

The commuter rail agency is sending the controversial $185 million project to reconstruct century-old bridges back to its engineers to find a way to keep two tracks in operation, officials said.

Metra also wants to identify ways to cut the price of rebuilding retaining walls holding up the embanked train tracks on Chicago's North Side.

Metra postponed the project until spring after riders complained of schedule changes that would have been needed by cutting service to a single track.

Now that Metra has decided to keep two tracks, the project is likely to cost more, but probably not $80 million more, which Metra Chairwoman Carole Doris called a "worst-case scenario."

"But I think we're (going to be) able to whittle that number down some. We have to," Doris said. "But those numbers are (still) being developed."

Metra may find itself going back to its original plan to reconstruct the retaining walls and keep two tracks in use on its third-busiest line.

That plan would have disrupted many landscaped areas and parking in the Ravenswood and Rogers Park communities. Metra scaled back the plan to keep the current embankments.

One way Metra might save money is to spread the eight-year project out over 12 years, spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.

The work "may have to be rebid," she said. "We don't know how much the scope of the project will change."

One thing Metra will not do is add a third track, Doris said. For decades, there were three tracks on the line, but the third set of rails was removed in the early 1980s by then-owner Chicago & North Western Transportation Co.

Metra board member Jim LaBelle has suggested that Metra restore the third track, an opinion that is shared by railroad analysts and many riders.

That would allow for better express and local service, longtime commuter Robert Ferencz told Metra's board, complaining of deterioration in service on the UP North Line.